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They’re talking...are we listening? |
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Cookie Grimes |
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UNDERSTANDING HORSES NATURALLY |
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Alternatives to traditional training. |
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There are 80 different definitions of the word play in the dictionary. Concerning horses, how does a person describe play? Well, allow me to share with you how I learned to play. Of course, I learned from my horse . . . imagine that!
It happened many years ago during a lesson. The instructor noticed that I had a very serious look on my face and that my horse had the same look. So she asked me if I could relax my face. I didn’t understand “relax my face”. She said soften your eyes. I tried: it was very hard to do. Then finally it happened: I relaxed my facial muscles and the horse did the same.
I felt so different—very light! When the lesson was over and I got off my horse, I felt very surprised: almost as if I were a different person. Maybe a little in shock. How did I get that feel? That night I thought about the lesson and how I felt after. I remembered it seemed as if everything was in slow motion. |
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I looked in the mirror at myself and thought . . . how could the horse feel the muscles from my face? I looked at my forehead and noticed the wrinkles I had between my eyes. I tried to get them to go away and they wouldn’t. I smiled and they were still there; they were not leaving. Then I started PLAYING with different facial expressions in front of the mirror and began laughing!
I thought it was funny sitting in front of the mirror and making faces. Remember how we did that as kids? . . making funny faces at one other! Suddenly I noticed the change: the wrinkle between my eyes had softened. With this idea I decided to try riding my horse while laughing. I began to notice whenever I laughed on my horse, my body felt different. I didn’t feel top-heavy: I felt like I was sitting deeper into the seat of the saddle. My entire body relaxed. This is simply “Psychology of Physiology, 101”!
As time went by I decided that whenever I felt uncomfortable or out of balance or if something just wasn’t right, I would simply start laughing! It was a way that my body could release itself and breathe, and it was easy—I didn’t have to think about it, it just came natural. The more I rode, the more easily I laughed. My friends and I would tell jokes and funny stories and sometimes sing out loud. Anything to keep our thoughts in that playful mode.
Finally it was a rule with myself and friends: if we rode into trouble we would give the horse a little rein and start laughing. It never failed us. With today's society I think we forget to slip in a good laugh here and there. But it’s a natural way for us to release the tension we hold. Most of us are shallow breathers and we forget to use our lungs to the fullest; laughing allows us to release our tension.
When we’re tense, holding our breath, and stiff in our body, the horse feels this and mimics our behavior. Then we wonder why they’re not responding! We get caught up in our jobs and life at home with our families, and sometimes we forget to laugh and play. And that’s when we don’t notice the little things around us. Like that look in a horse’s eyes. I think that we humans are trying sometimes too hard to be that perfect horseman or horsewomen. Relax, and enjoy your equine friend!
These horses have put up with us, and have tried to tell us. We often think they are being disrespectful, when some of them are merely saying, “Relax, you’re on my back.”
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